Student Contributor: S. Morfin
This tool is an effective way to encourage student collaboration and communication. You have students partner up and share their ideas during a lesson.
This tool is a simple and easy way to help students develop many skills. This includes speaking, listening skills and collaboration skills. Students are also more likely to be engaged within the lesson. I believe this helps grow more student participation within the classroom. Sometimes students are asked to share their ideas in front of the class and many are hesitant and shy. When you give students the opportunity to share to their thoughts to one partner, it takes the pressure off and it is much more likely that they actually communicate their ideas. It creates an interactive environment. As well has helps them see their partners perspective and thinking.
I placed Turn and Talk in the supportive phase because I believe that is the one that fits best. Turn and Talk is a great tool to use throughout the year. It encourages more active engagement in the classroom as well as collaboration. It gives students an opportunity to share their ideas with a partner more confidently. This helps develop their communication skills and social skills which are very important. I believe the collaborative theory fits best for this tool. Students are encouraged to work as a team and listen to one another. Students also get the chance to listen to their peers perspective and build on each others ideas. A teacher might ask a question and ask students to turn to a partner to discuss or find a possible answer together.
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Tool Source: I got this idea from my college classes.
I found this turn and talk management method extremely helpful with collaboration with my classroom. I am in the early stages of my students teaching journey and I was given an assignment challenging me to experiment with different management techniques with my placement classroom. I was very nervous to implement an imposing strategy in my classroom because my mentor teacher had so many techniques in place already. Before trying the turn and talk method with my students, I was hoping this technique would help the students I noticed falling behind, to not only stay more engaged with the content, but also engage with their peers in an academic conversation. After trying the technique for a few lessons, I know with certainty that I will use it in my future classroom. Not only was it easy for the students to try, but I also noticed that giving my students turn and talk time helped keep them more focused on their tasks because the conversations they were having were structured around the course content. I also loved seeing my students help one another by talking through and debating their ideas. One thing that I have to say is that you must make sure students are seated in a way that will allow for them to collaborate easily with their peers. Row seating would make meaningful turn and talk time difficult.
This tool is an effective way to encourage student collaboration and communication. You have students partner up and share their ideas during a lesson.
In a 6th grade science classroom, the “Turn and Talk” strategy is an effective way to encourage student engagement and promote deeper understanding of scientific concepts. This approach involves students turning to a partner to discuss a question or idea posed by the teacher. For example, after introducing a topic like the water cycle, the teacher might ask, “What do you think happens to water when it evaporates?” Students would then turn to a partner, share their thoughts, and listen to each other’s ideas.
This strategy helps students process information and solidify their understanding by verbalizing their thoughts. It also allows them to practice important communication skills, such as listening, explaining, and asking questions. By engaging in peer discussions, students are more likely to recall and connect concepts.
Turn and Talk also supports collaborative learning. Students have the opportunity to hear different perspectives, which can deepen their understanding and stimulate critical thinking. For instance, when studying ecosystems, students might discuss how different organisms rely on each other for survival.
Additionally, the teacher can use Turn and Talk to quickly assess student comprehension and adjust instruction as needed. Overall, Turn and Talk creates an interactive, supportive classroom environment where students actively engage with the content and each other.
I tried this management tool for six classes of 25-30 6th graders. This tool has been mentioned many times throughout the education program as a great way to let the kids share their thoughts before answering and to have a moment to think. It is extremely easy to prepare since it does not take any materials. A major thing I like about Turn and Talk is that it works with every subject since it is partner or group discussion. This tool definitely needs to be done constantly so the students are familiar with what is being asked of them. The first couple times you do this tool, you will need to go over some quick behavior and academic expectations you are wanting from the students, otherwise the kids can get off topic or they might be talking for too long. The students were engaged and thankful they had time to think before answering, they said it made them feel less pressured.
This tool was great! It just takes a little bit of explaining for the students to get used to. Giving clear instructions when it comes to who their Partners will be came to be really important.
For this tool specifically we ask the students to say whatever their partner said. Students like to talk about what they said and to get them more focused and more engaged we have them say what their partner said. That’s a little bit harder for them and so it gets their minds working a little bit more. I think at the beginning the students were a little confused but as we’ve done it a couple times now they really enjoy it! We mostly use this in literacy so they get to talk to their peers about the books that we read, which are pretty fun so they enjoy talking about them. I think this is a really good tool and can be used in all grades which is awesome.
Grade level- K, 19 students, urban: This tool is such a big help in our classroom and is something my mentor already has in her teachings. It was interesting to use it with my own lessons and to see if they responded positively to a new teacher using this tool. Most of the time students are on topic and engaging with one another to think and learn from one another. There is a time when this turns to more off topic socialization, but we still find it beneficial in the sense that it gives the students a break and usually they end up doing this after their academic talking. I’ve ended up implementing this many times during my lessons and found it to be helpful in getting that peer interaction and having their ideas heard. ELL students are usually paired with stronger speakers, so they are learning multiple different tools with their partner even if they are just listening at first which I felt has improved their learning. The more successful this tool is I’ve come to find out is when the sharing is on a certain time frame. At the start I was letting them share for 2 minutes and I found out the hard way that gets them off topic quickly. Sticking to 1 minute or less is the perfect amount and it shows, I’ll usually get loud outburst or undesired behaviors.
This tool worked awesome in my classroom. Explicit instruction is important, especially for first graders. As they were on the carpet, I needed to help them find their partners(the person sitting next to them) if there was a student at the end who didn’t have a partner I would tell them to talk with the person behind them. Other than that students picked it up very quickly. I modified it and added “turn and learn” to get students’ attention back on me. They chanted it back to me and they were very engaged by it. I love that the turn and talk provides a little more collaboration in your lessons, making them more student-centered. Students get the opportunity to use listening skills and express their thoughts on how they came up with specific answers. A great tool I will use in the future!